An Inconvenient Video from COP-15 (2009) featuring DeSmog Blog’s Brendan Demelle. This video was deemed soooo compelling by viewers that in the two years it’s been posted it had a whopping nine views when I scrounged it up from the YouTube dustbin. An excerpt from Demelle discussing the state of journalism, and the rise of bloggers:

“…with the struggling economy which is hurting newsrooms there just aren’t as many resources to devote to deep investigative journalism than there used to be, and I think that’s why you see a rise in citizen journalism, people taking it upon themselves to go and try to figure out what the facts are and to report the facts. Also, you know, one of the things that Danny mentioned is that journalists are, you know, taught to be objective and not to have a view. I’d just say that you’re also taught to report facts, and not lies and misdeeds….”

Peter Gleick, February, 2009, in a piece accusing the Heartland Institute of cherry-picking data to show a supposedly non-existent recent cooling trend:

Their irresponsible actions in this cherry-picking exercise substantially diminish even further Heartland’s claim to be any kind of honest broker of serious scientific skepticism on the topic of climate change.

DIVORCE adds to the impact of global warming as couples switch to wasteful single lifestyles, Family First senator Steve Fielding says.

He told a Senate hearing on today that divorce led to a “resource-inefficient lifestyle” and it would be better for the planet if couples stayed married.

When couples separate, they need more rooms, more electricity and more water, which increases their carbon footprint.

“We understand that there is a social problem (with divorce), but now we’re seeing there is also environmental impact as well on the footprint,” Senator Fielding said.

The senator has now changed his tune, and even went half way around the world to DC for The Heartland Institute’s Third International Conference on Climate Change to marinate himself in some healthy skepticism. Fielding has changed his tune, saying at the conference:

I suppose I’m in the camp of what people call the realists or the skeptics.

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Al Gore’s Modus Operandi

Al Gore: "I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are...."
Grist Magazine (May 9, 2006)